THE NEW YORKER saw swing as so overwhelming that he adapted to it, in the Lyda Roberti numbers in "Roberta" and in virtually an of his Astaire- Rogers score "Swing Time" (1936). Porter didn't have to adapt: Artie Shaw's quite faithful read- ing of "Begin the Beguine," in 1938, was one of the biggest sellers of the age. Ironically, Porter was the flip side of the disk; the A-side title was "In- dian Love Call," almost unrecogniz- able in Shaw's avid sendup, with the band men calling out punctuational noises and Tony Pastor contributing a vocal chorus that wins the prize for Least Amount of Rudolf Friml Actually Sung on a Friml Recording. It's excellent swing, in a truly intricate arrangement, and we can see why Bluebird in- tended it as the selling side of the disk. But it does show us how unstable theatre music was in this era, how strenu- ously "interpreted" it could be. So it's telling that Porter fits in so comfortably. Shaw's crew doesn't have to jerk "Begin the Beguine" around like "Indian Love Call," because Porter can speak for himself even in the new language. There is no vocal, just the sounding of the hook-a smoothly throbbing swing version of Porter's own-and then Shaw's clarinet over the band. It was commonly said in the industry that "the intro sold the record." No: it was Porter, and Shaw's techni- cally spectacular rising glissando at the climax. One is tempted to say that the typical Porter number is a love song told to a beat, not only because Porter in- vented this kind of American ballad but also because, unlike the Porter list song and the Porter Latin number, it never suffered imitation. Still, what's . . 1 "'1 " L ' D I " b qUlntessentla r et s 0 t ut not " s . L ""'1 " N . h d D " b o In ove r 19 t an a y ut not "Anything Goes"? I find Porter at his most characteristic in a lost classic, "The Kling-Kling Bird on the Divi- Divi Tree," which was the first num- ber written on Porter's world cruise with Moss Hart-the cruise that re- sulted in "Jubilee" (1935), one of Porter's greatest scores. Porter and Hart put up in Jamaica, where, so legend has it, Porter hears something strange in the air and asks someone what it is. " Kl . kl . " lng- lng. "What?" "Kling-kling, sir. Kling-kling bird." Porter wants it pointed out. " Th " ere. "W h ?" ere. "m 'h D .. d . . h ." .1, ere. lVl- lVl tree were, SIr. "The kling- kling bird on the divi- divi tree," Porter amusedly repeats. Then, smiling, "Title!" Or something like that. "The Kling- Kling Bird on the Divi-Divi Tree" is the recounting, by a Noël Coward-like playwright named Eric Dare, of his romantic adventures on just such a world cruise, and it is ultimate Porter in its unusual structure ( a rondo, and longer even than "Blow, Gabriel, Blow" or "Begin the Beguine"), its powerful and diverse rhyth- mic energies, its playfully bawdy content, and its ca- sual juxtaposition of the old- fashioned and the ultra- contemporary. It's a Gilbert and Sullivan patter song, complete with echoing cho- rus, yet it's the randiest thing Broad- way had ever heard, the last word in conservative formalism set in a code only the next age could unscramble. For everywhere that Eric Dare trav- els, the kling- kling bird appears to warn him away from sex-with women. The double meanings count among P , . D ' orter s most outrageous, as In are s platonic diversion with a Pacific is- lander, "Pure Tahitian by her mother, and pure French by the missionary's brother" : It was hard for me to say "no" When she asked me to visit her volcano. Or in Dare's relationship with "a very broad-minded cannibaless": We had dallied for a week or more, When she said, one ev'ning, in front of her door, " w ' . . d d k . "" on t you come InSI e an ma e pOIr Long as it is, "The Kling-Kling Bird" is in fact the third section of a musical scene in which Dare's fans await his return in a comic lament and Dare arrives to a smashing waltz. Only then does he run through the song proper-in all, seven minutes entirely through-sung, routine in op- eretta but rare in a musical comedy, especially one by Porter. Of the major Broadway composers of his day, he is the only one perceived as unambitious, a master of shows meant to be nothing but fast and funny. There is no "Show B " " Of Th I S . " " c oat, ee lng, or arou- 99 } /' Jt._ ..... .. Time to stop the "killing by other means" in Iraq Quaker relief staff in Baghdad say that over 100,000 Iraqi civ- ilians could die by winter's end due to food and medicine short- ages. The most vulnerable are perishing first -infants and old, poor, or ill people. Pre-war Iraq imported 700/0 of its food and $500 million in medi- cal supplies annually. Now, eight months after the war, punitive economic sanctions and frozen assets strangle the Iraqi people, not the regime. Food rations supply only eight days of a family's minimum monthly diet; 100/0 of all pre- schoolers suffer malnutrition and infant formula is watered down. Scavenger hunts for anesthetics and medicines mean that only 200/0 of needed surgery is done and treatable disease becomes a terminal diagnosis. The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has aided victims of war since 1917 without regard to politics or religion. We already have sent $150,000 in humanitarian aid to the Gulf and strongly urge easing economic sanctions. Please act on your compassion by helping AFSC fund new ship- ments of medical and agricultural supplies. How can we do nothing if civilian deaths threaten to equal the toll of Iraqi soldiers killed in the war? It is time for Americans to show mercy. Right now, with winter coming on. _ American Friends Service Committee Finance Department 1501 Cherry Street Philadelphia, PA 19102 My contribution to Iraqi and Gulf war victims through AFSC: o $35 0 $50 0 $75 0 $100 Other_ Name Address City/State/Zip 140HA Basra Hospital photo by Jane Taylor